I don't see a problem with the Church advocating most political positions it feels are in the best interest of the Church. The Church advocated polygamy and lost; therefore, we don't practice polygamy anymore. The Church advocates against gay marriage and, so far, has won (for the most part); therefore, gay marriage remains illegal.
I'd like to share a story.
Bill Eskridge, a Yale law professor and a leading proponent of gay marriage (
http://www.law.yale.edu/outside/html...e2/profile.htm), spoke at my law school a few years ago about gay marriage. He said three things that stood out to me:
1. When asked why gay marriage was probably going to pass in Massachusetts, he said there was one reason and one reason only: very few foot soldiers campaigned against it. In California and most other states, LDS Church members and others went out in droves to oppose it, but in Massachusetts there was very little opposition.
2. The strongest and most reasoned opposition he receives from legal academia to his pro-gay marriage views comes from BYU law professor Lynn Wardle (
http://www.law2.byu.edu/Law_School/f...p_frameset.htm). I was glad to hear BYU is offering solid legal and political arguments in favor of the Church's stated position.
3. His main counter-argument to those who oppose gay marriage is that they have no evidence whatsoever that gay marriage is harmful to children or harmful to society. So I posed to him the following question, hoping to catch him in a trap: "Professor Eskridge, if we discovered, through future research, that gay marriage is clearly harmful to children and families, would you still advocate gay marriage." He dodged my question, leading me to believe that his views are somewhat disingenuous and intellectually dishonest. He refused to concede, even if my premise were true, that he would then have to agree politically, in the name of intellectual integrity, with those who oppose gay marriage.